MS claims 40 percent GTA IV attach rate

Microsoft has said that 40 percent of its new Xbox 360 consoles were sold with Grand Theft Auto IV during the game's first week on sale.

The news comes just days after Microsoft claimed "more than 60 percent" of software sales for GTA IV in the US were on Xbox 360; a spike that pushed hardware sales up by 54 percent.

"The game is attaching well to new consoles, roughly 40 per cent of 360s going out the door had a copy of GTA IV going with them," said a spokesperson on the Major "Larry Hryb" Nelson podcast.

Official Chart Track numbers in the UK show that 514,000 copies of GTA IV were sold on Xbox 360 in the game's first week on sale, while 413,000 were flogged on PS3.

According to Chart Track figures released yesterday, the percentage gap widened in week two - with 360 sales accounting for 62 percent of the total sold - but overall sales for the game slumped by 77 percent.